​This weekend, fringe history believers gathered in Colorado for the Earth-Keeper Star-Gate Conference, which was scheduled to see lectures from some of fringe history’s biggest names: Graham Hancock, Giorgio Tsoukalos, Robert Schoch, Scott Wolter, and William Henry. The event was auspicious, organizers said, because they used astrology to plan its time and date. Tickets ran $488 for a four-day pass ($555 for “premium” access), but entry did not include the extra fees for one of eleven “master healers” to use “earth energies” and “crystals” on attendees in private session. The speakers all planned to deliver their standard spiel keyed to repeating claims from their latest books, TV shows, and web appearances. Giorgio Tsoukalos promised to hold a book signing, which must be quite a feat considering he has never written one.

​Since the publicity materials promised no new material to come out of the conference, I thought I’d instead talk about one of the overarching themes of my research in light of an article I read last night. I’ve frequently pointed out the way the science, pseudoscience, and speculative fiction feed into one another. Thus, Helena Blavatsky could claim that science fiction writers were channeling ancient truths of Theosophy, while ancient astronaut theorists could blithely cite H. P. Lovecraft as proof of prehistoric contact with space aliens, while Lovecraft drew on Blavatsky’s Theosophy. These sorts of connections are so commonplace in fringe history that we see them even in my first paragraph today: The “Star-Gate Conference” takes its name from the 1994 movie Stargate, which spawned an entire sub-field of the ancient astronaut theory by depicting a portal to an Egypt-themed alien planet.

Our example today comes from the field of the Gothic, where Anne Rice made her name writing vampire fiction. She turned to Christian fan fiction for a while before going back to her vampires, and her new novel has the vampire Lestat from Interview with the Vampire visiting the lost continent of Atlantis. Why Atlantis? I turns out that Anne Rice is a fan of Graham Hancock. She told Atlas Obscura that she researched her book by “reading books by Graham Hancock on catastrophe theory.” Rice said that the Atlantean research she conducted inspired her to write more: “I want very much to go on with the story of the survivors of Atlantis and the vampires,” she said.

This prompted me to look into Rice’s connection to Hancock a bit more. It turns out that she gave a blurb to Hancock’s last book, Magicians of the Gods, recommending it: “I do so recommend this book. Hancock is an enchanting writer, and such a curious and thoughtful and intuitive investigator of the mysteries.” Since Hancock wrote about me in that book, I guess that means Anne Rice knows about me! On the other hand, Hancock trashes me in the book, so there’s that.

It’s a little weird that Anne Rice would be a huge Hancock buff, if only because the strange version of history that Hancock provides is essentially the opposite of Rice’s own (current) belief in God and Christ. (She has been an atheist, a Catholic, and simply spiritual at various points in her life.) Hancock literalizes mythologies, turning angels and demons into prehistoric white inhabitants of Atlantis, reducing the narrative of Genesis to an amnesiac’s misremembered time in Atlantis, and leaving no room for Father, Son or Holy Ghost, the heavenly host or the community of the saints. Perhaps the answer is that Rice now rejects formal Christianity in favor of her own idiosyncratic belief in God and Christ. She said in the past that the core of her faith “was the sense, profound and wordless, that if He knew everything I did not have to know everything, and that, in seeking to know everything, I'd been, all of my life, missing the entire point.” To that end, Hancock’s threadbare mysteries seem to be an extension of faith, a hope that there are unknown realms beyond the mundane world—and that, to whatever extent, mirrors Rice’s lifelong belief that literature is a sort of analog to religion, a way to escape the limits of time and space. “Fantasy fiction embraces the highest literary values: plot, spectacle, suspense, great persons, tragedy, pity, catharsis,” she told Atlas Obscura. Perhaps, then, Hancock’s moralizing view of history, of great civilizations brought low by powers beyond their control, and of the damage wrought by rejected ancient and sacred spiritual truths, appeals to that instinct in Rice. Hancock give us history as a simple story, rather than a messy account of the complexities that occur when there is no hand guiding the tale.

I suppose the hottest ticket in town would actually go to whoever wins the bid to be the official conference pot vendor...

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Residents Fan

11/20/2016 10:50:18 am

Never really cared for Rice's work. I always found the work of Poppy Z. Brite and Lucy Taylor to be much superior.

On a related topic, I notice Lovecraft scholar and skeptic Robert M. Price has endorsed Donald Trump in September:

" Recently I was a guest (or was that “sideshow freak”?) on a podcast where I was called to account for my support for Donald Trump. My stunned hosts could not conceive of an atheist skeptic supporting Trump, opposing abortion, doubting Global Warming, etc."

http://www.robertmprice.mindvendor.com/zblog/

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Weatherwax

11/21/2016 11:42:55 am

Yes, Dr Price has always been on the conservative side of the political spectrum. We all have flaws, I guess.

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Only Me

11/20/2016 11:23:28 am

I used to like Anne Rice. When I found out she wrote a series of books under the name A. N. Roquelaure, I read the first book, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty...and I regretted it.

She thinks Hancock is a "thoughtful and intuitive investigator"? I suppose she doesn't realize there is no difference between her work and his. They both write fiction.

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Residents Fan

11/20/2016 11:30:19 am

"I used to like Anne Rice. When I found out she wrote a series of books under the name A. N. Roquelaure, I read the first book, The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty...and I regretted it. "

I've not read them, but apparently they are very strong BDSM erotica.

Also, I've just noticed, flicking thru my Irish TV cable package, that one of the stations on offer is airing "The Curse of Oak Island" several times a day.

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Only Me

11/20/2016 11:44:36 am

"I've not read them...". I don't think you'd want to.

Was it the erotic theme? No. Was it the retelling of Sleeping Beauty? No. It was the way the characters were stripped of their humanity. Not only was this accepted, the thought of changing the status quo never crossed anyone's mind. Some of the characters loved their dehumanized state SO MUCH they didn't want leave their forced servitude. And that was just in the first book.

It was pure garbage IMHO.

Will

11/20/2016 07:30:39 pm

Marvel beat Rice to the vampire / Atlantis connection

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Varnae_(Earth-616)

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Graham

11/20/2016 08:06:27 pm

I think something that has to be remembered is that Graham Hancock has written at least one novel himself 'Entangled: The Eater of Souls', this is the blurb from Amazon:

"As mankind faces its deadliest battle, two young women must unite to prevent the forces of evil destroying the world as we know it. But theirs is no ordinary alliance, for these two women live at opposite ends of history, until fate brings them together and their destinies are inextricably intertwined.

Leoni, a troubled teen from 21st Century Los Angeles, finds everything she's ever known thrown into disarray when a drug overdose catapults her into a parallel dimension.

There she meets Ria, who is also suspended on the edge of time. Ria's world is violent and desolate in a way Leoni has never experienced - but only together can they stop the powerful demon Sulpa, the Eater of Souls.The embodiment of pure evil, Sulpa is preparing to perpetrate one final, horrific act of unspeakable wickedness, after which nothing will be able to stand in the way of his ultimate goal: the annihilation of mankind. Only Leoni and Ria can stop him..."

I used to own a print copy of this but could not get past the first chapters.

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Joe Scales

11/21/2016 11:50:16 pm

Scrolling down to the bios on that Earth-Keeper site is a hoot. They list "Scott Wolmer" as a "Master Geologist". For another speaker, they claim Boston U. is an Ivy League school. I had to stop reading at that point. Too funny.

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DaveR

11/22/2016 12:28:09 pm

I read Interview with the Vampire and didn't see much point in reading anything else she wrote.

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I'm an author and editor who has published on a range of topics, including archaeology, science, and horror fiction. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.